The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-06-02
PICTURE OF PANDENIONIUM.
Fighting Fire Nearly 1000 Feet Under
Ground.

Ground.
The Comstoek Lode is of itself one
Of the worlds wonders. Itis moreover
wonderful as spot in which the
greatest marvels of mining have been
performed. When the great bonanza
was being worked 100000 feet of
timber were lowered into the deeps
and set in place monthly for probably
forty months. Well, that mass of tim
Der has been on fire for two or three
years past, and has at last become so
terrible feature that it must be sub
dued or that portion of the great lode
2bandoned. Some time ago it was
hoped that the fire might be arrested
by bulkheads, and so solid walls of
masonry were built sixteen feet in
thickness to ward off the terrible fire.
But the walls soon became hot and the
fatal gas generated by the fire found
its way out into the open chambers of
the mine. Something else had to be
done, and so it was determined to try
to drown the fire with carbonic-acid
gas. The trial is now under way and
Dan De guile, in the Enterprise, gives a
description of it. 1t reads like the de-
scription of battle between mortals
and gnomes. From the intensely inter-
esting statement we condense some
naked facts. A furnace for the manu-
facture of the gas is placed in position
on the Ophir mine. The furnace is
iron, like a steam boiler, lined with
brick, and the material used for the
manufacture of the gas is coke and
charcoal. The furnace is fed at one
end and the gas is discharged through
twelve-inch pipe at the other. 1.-The
draft through the furnace is very
strong, and when the doors are open
the flames within roar like a blast
furnace. CaSt-irOn, or any ordinary
metal would be melted in a moment
in the great heat" The furnace makes
40, 900 feet of carbonic gas daily, and
it is estimated that fifty days will be
required to subdue the fire, as it is be-
ieyed that it fills 1000, 900 feet of the
mine. The pipe is white heat when the
gas leaves the furnace. This is carried
down into a tank or tlume eighty feet
in length over which ten inches of
water flows constantly and cools it.
Then the pipe enters the main in
cline, still lying in the trough, and
goes down seventy feet to the 1,750
level The water dashes down through
this trough and over and around the
pipe with the noise of small Niagara"
On that level the pipe enters the bulk
head, which at that point is twenty
four feet in thickness. The pipe is
tamped in with clay and which is
kept constantly wet. The account
says:
A tremendous draft inside the bulk
head sucks in the carbOnic-acid gas
brought there through the pipe. When
the bulkhead was cut through for the
purpose of inserting the end of the
pipe, all were astonished at the draft
that was disclosed. 1t was so great
that the wOrkmen were obliged to be
on their guard against being sucked in
and carried into the region of interior
fire. This may appear to be an eXag-
geratiOn, but an thermometer placed in
the current of air showed it to have a
velocity of 500 miles an hour. On the
surface of the earth eighty miles an
hour is thought to be a fearful gale,
but here is gale of 500 miles. This
brings into ones mind at once thoughts
of the tremendous gaseous distur-
Dances to which the surface of the sun
is subject.
OF course this draft was not long left
open, the thrush of atmospheric air,
combining with the earbonic-oxide gas
within, being liable to form an explO-
sive compound. The pipe was in
readiness, with its lower end closed,
and it was at once thrust through the
opening and the work filling in around
it begun.
As the gas passes in behind the
bulkhead it settles down into the low
est part of the inclosed space, being
heavier than the carbonic-oxide gas
within, and also heavier than atmos-
pheric air. 1t will 90 down to the
1900 level There it viii be stopped
off and prevented sinking further by
water. Thus all the inclosed space il
which are the smoldering timbers will
be filed up with carbonic-acid gas,
which will displace the carbonic-oxide
gas, just as water poured into a bottle
displaces the air.
When all the section has been thus
filled up, the fact will be known by
carbonic gas flowing out through the
pipe on the 1,500 level through which
the gas from the fire is now escaping
into the old Consolidated Virginia
shaft
1t may be stated that after the in
closed section shall have been filled to
overllowing with the carbonic-acid gas
it will be allowed to so remain month
or two before any of the bulkheads are
opened. The opening viii be very
cautiously done, and only after the
carbonic-acid gas has taken the place
of the carbonic-oXide gas at the escape
pipe. This may be known by several
tests. A very simple one is to introduce
the gas into lime-water, when a pre-
cipitate viii at once be formed of the
contained lime.
The rock in the mine will retain heat
long time, but this may be overcome
by the use of water thrown on
through hose, once the fire is out and
the gas gone.
The glowing furnace at the 1,7OO
level of the Ophir, where the gas is
made, presents novel and striking
scene-a scene almost startling to an
old Comstocker coming suddenly upon
1t from dimly lighted drift. 1t sends
a red glare all about the station, such
as one sees in big foundry where
small rivers of molten iron are flowing
about. The men, too, look in the red
glare like beings belonging litti~
lower down in the subterraneaD ao,;on =
where old Satan is firing up. It was
yesterday compared With the furnaces
IN the hold OF ? olg ocean steamer, but
mel iieie 'le ure is much tiercer. The coke
-larcoal under the strong-fear-
!uliy strong-draft bring all inside the
furnace to white heat. The heat and
glare are so intense that no one feels
all the time as though there were danger
OF something giving away or blowing
up Then, besides the roar of the
furnace, there is the roar of the falling
water in the incline, the rattle of cages,
and the clank of machinery. All these
sights and sounds taken together con-
stltute a small pandemonium which if